Mionix Zibal 60 review

The green lantern of keyboards

Jump to Section:

For

Solid build quality

Cherry MX keyswitches

Responsive

Against

Flimsy palm rest

This is one well-built keyboard. Mionix says it's 'rage proof', but we say forget the puny hands of frustrated gamers – the Zibal 60 looks like it could survive an assault from an angry freight vehicle.

It has an impressive spec too. Keyboard geeks will be familiar with the high travel and satisfying clickiness of black Cherry MX key switches. We're not sure if it would make the difference between pwning and being pwned, but it sure feels purty on the fingers.

Illuminating

Each key is individually illuminated, which we prefer to backlighting and the strange feeling it gives us of a creepy glowing realm hidden just behind the keys. Maybe PCF has just watched Poltergeist one too many times. Actually, that probably explains why we NEVER LET CHILDREN AND TVs IN THE SAME ROOM EVER. You can cycle between lighting just the WSAD keys and the full keyboard, too.

Extruding from the magnificent girth of the Zibal 60's braided cable are two USB connectors: audio in and mic in, which let you connect a gaming headset to your keyboard rather than trail it round to your case, and stick a USB drive in there too, for laughs. This isn't an innovation, but we certainly expect this box ticked for a keyboard this expensive and some boards use a USB 1.1 hub instead of the 2.0 hub here.

Using the same Mionix 'action key' you can also access media and volume controls. It keeps the keyboard neat and compact, and at least part of its appeal to us is that at first glance it looks not unlike a bog-standard Dell workstation keyboard – it's the subtlety that impresses.

Our only gripe is the flimsy palm rest – ours arrived a bit broken and it doesn't look as 'rage proof' as the board itself. Other than that, it's the board of champions.